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As a Catholic priest committed to fighting anti-semitism, I attended Bari Weiss’ NY Times Talk on Thursday evening, Sept. 5, promoting her book (2019, New York: Crown) which I just finished. There’s also a NYTIMES magazine piece 9/8. I think this very short book (206 of 7” x 4 ½ “pages) is best in its definition of Anti-semitism and its overview of its history (the “HOW TO segment is shorter and addressed primarily to the Jewish community itself), I want to share some of Bari Weiss’insights (and mine–IN PARENTHESIS) with you:

Judaism is not only a religion, it is an
ethnicity, a people and a nation.
Not
acknowledging all three opens critics to contributing to antisemitism .

Anti-Semitism
comprises a goal of eliminating Judaism and the Jewish people.
(In
that sense, I believe Christian supersessionism is Anti-Semitic)

Anti-Semitism
includes superstitions, lies and falsehoods about Jews and Judaism’s but can
include misunderstandings that are not fact checked.
There
is also a strong illogic– Jews and Judaism are blamed for whatever! –with no
basis on reality. E.g., ” controlling the planet, controlling banks/ Wall
Street/ education / Hollywood/ government policy / responsible for the spread
of communism/ engineering wars for profit.”

Anti-Semitism includes Denial of, and/or
refutation of, the distinct ethic, moral, faith, social and literary
contributions of the Hebrew Bible and the major contribution of Jews to Western
Civilization.

There is
disproportionate blame and outright
scapegoating of Israel as a nation that is essentially anti-semitism.
In
contrast, holding American and Israel to their highest ideals and
constitutional directives is not Anti-Semitism. E.g., one may fairly state that
“the current policies of the Jewish state betray Jewish (and American
constitutional) values.

The FAR-RIGHT:
White
Supremacy ideology forms hatred of Jews because of its biblical ethics,
sensitivities to immigrants, minorities; hated for its internationalist
character. It is threatened by Jewish civilization

HOW
TO FIGHT ANTI-SEMTISM:

Weiss offers this:

Follow
Abraham’s example: refuse to worship false idols (incl. lies, biased reporting)
and nurture courage to keep out-of-step with the status quo; risk acting on behalf of deeper, biblical
values; don’t be afraid to stand alone, even while cultivating community within
and beyond Judaism

Remind people that the American values
of liberty, freedom of thought and worship, the notion that all people are
created equal—are Jewish values coded in Genesis 1 and throughout the Hebrew
Bible. So, too, the very notions of Hope
and a present that nurtures a more positive future for humanity are specific
Jewish contributions to Western Civilization.

I offer this:

Hold all comments made in conversation about “The Jews” (or any group) to the “Who, What, When, Where, Why, How” standard

A foundational aspect of the Bible’s inspiration is the way the Jewish community writes of its great accomplishments and its failures, often with more accounts of the failures and the sufferings it endures. All peoples would do well to do the same, holding accomplishments –positive contributions to wisdom, world values and cultures while remaining humble of all the failures. I think one aspect of antisemitism is that others are not secure about their own ethnicity, heritage, strengths and failures and so let themselves become envious and resentful of the Jewish identity and its outstanding contributions. More HUMBLE pride all around could help!

By this time in our history, what Catholic doesn’t
know when Jesus states “You must hate your father, mother, wife, children, brother,
sister if you are to follow me” he used
hyperbole / exaggeration to express that we must love God first above all
others. If not, we tend to love family
and friends selfishly, manipulatively, with jealousy or envy or with inflated
pride or too much criticism. Following
Jesus first, we see our loved ones as Jesus sees them, love them as Jesus loves
them, support them as much as we can mirror Jesus’ support—i.e., loving them while insisting on
the Two Great Commandments which foster honesty, humility, forgiveness, and
courage to repair any damage that we’ve done. As for “hating even our lives,” of course, we
must always be GRATEFUL for our lives, for being invited to share in Jesus’
life, his mission, cultivating his perspectives in how we interact with the
world. What we need “to hate” is our tendency to default to society’s ways
of valuing us – our looks, our possessions, our neighborhoods, our needs for
other’s approval. Grateful that we may
have these things but not resentful that we may not.

In the NYTIMES Sunday Arts section today, there’s an
insightful interview with Linda Ronstadt, a very popular recording artist of
the 1970 and 80’s , now retired and, it seems, living gracefully with
Parkinson’s disease. Regarding her
unique recordings of Mexican songs when bringing Spanish into mainstream pop
was extremely rare, her interviewer asked her:
““When critics talk about the pop artists who brought music from
outside the U.S. or U.K. to the pop mainstream, they mention Paul Simon and
Peter Gabriel, not you. Is that frustrating?
HER RESPONSE: Who cares? My music is not
curing cancer. It will be gone soon enough.

That,
my friends is a shining example of being thankful for our lives and talents
while being humble and keeping the big picture –whether we ever get our name in
a newspaper or our YouTube posts go viral.

Following
Jesus, picking up our cross—i.e. accepting trials and conflicts and
difficulties as challenges, opportunities for grace, and being “ever-ready,”
“prepared,” “prudent,” eager to learn is the theme for our Eucharist today. And, I know, how often we may not feel any of
that. Remember, each Mass is here to return
us to hope, to courage—to trust in Jesus as the Way, the Truth and the Life. I know that not all family, friends and
co-workers support us in these beliefs and endeavors. Many chide, or ridicule us for going to Mass,
or for remaining Catholic, or for believing in God. Others are quick to lord it over us when we do
something harmful or indulge our tempers or hurt ourselves or another human
being. It is then that we must humbly acknowledge how dependent we are on
Christ and His Story of forgiveness, for reconciliation, for courage to admit
our wrongs and make amends. Today’s
Eucharist offers us that, too. Thank
God!

And yes, the Church as institution has given us plenty of
reasons to judge it, to even hate it.
Yet today and everyday Jesus gives us the grace to hold it accountable
with faith and hope, loving it back to its true self and reinstating it to its
primordial purpose. Hey, if not you and
me, who?

So, may we not despair that only some of us among family,
friends and neighbors have chosen to celebrate Jesus in us and for us today. We
never know when the deposit of Grace bestowed on in any given Eucharist will
bear fruit — even when we may not be
conscious of it. I’ll close with what I
hope is for you a shining example –an inspiration—as to the possibilities, the
grace in store for us precisely because we’re here, cultivating our friendship
with God and all that entails.

One day, a certain dad indulged his dark side in ways that were
deeply demeaning to his adult daughter.
She found herself brimming with rage.
But a voice within, however, pleaded with her: “Postpone your
wrath!” “Postpone your wrath!” What
Eucharist do you think that came from?
“Anyway,” she pacified herself with this thought, “I’ll plot my revenge
at a later date.“

As the days went by, the incident replayed repeatedly in her
mind, evoking the worst of all her childhood and adult memories. She’d see her father’s face before her and
cringe and craze. And then it happened! A realization that she didn’t have to live
this way. She had a choice. Yes, she could indulge these thoughts and
feelings, or she could release herself from unending trauma. She must recall
the good times, the pleasant moments with her dad or she’d make herself sick
and kill her kinship with her father forever.

She decided to throw him a party. She hadn’t prayed to Jesus for
deliverance, but faith is active even when we’re unconscious of it. Her preparations
brought good memories forward to balance the bad ones. Her dad was not a determinedly
daily tyrant. No, not at all. She
recalled moments of kindness, patience and generosity. Grace happened! The party was a singular success and none of
those who attended, especially dear dad, would ever know all that transpired in
her heart. She was free, her heart
restored, and she thought, “Thank God!” Remember, friends, Eucharist means
“Thanksgiving.”

Five Hundred or
so years before Jesus, Aesop recorded a Fable entitled “The Grasshopper and The
Ants.” It went like this:

One bright day in late autumn a family of
Ants were bustling about in the warm sunshine, drying out the grain they had
stored up during the summer, when a starving Grasshopper, his fiddle under his
arm, came up and humbly begged for a bite to eat.

“What!” cried the Ants in
surprise, “haven’t you stored anything away for the winter? What in the
world were you doing all last summer?”

“I didn’t have time to store up any
food,” whined the Grasshopper; “I was so busy making music that
before I knew it the summer was gone.”

The Ants shrugged their shoulders in
disgust.

“Making music, were you?” they
cried. “Very well; now dance!” And they turned their backs on the
Grasshopper and went on with their work.

Moral: There’s a time for
work and a time for play.

Sound a little
bit like Jesus’ parable, doesn’t it? BE
PREPARED! Folk wisdom can be found throughout the ages in Ancient and Biblical literature
alike. WISDOM is a gift from the Holy
Spirit, guaranteed in the Church and Synagogue but never limited to it. And we
well know how wisdom builds on wisdom from one age to the next. So, what did
Jesus add to the sagacity of his time for our time? He says, “You also must be
prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.” His listeners knew full well He was speaking
about the End Times—the End of All Things.
But they also knew that Promise of the Ages could be experienced in aspects
of their lives in their day. In our day,
we know that Christ attends to us, is with us, guides us through Sacraments and
all acts of faith, hope and love.

Jesus
also says, those who are “prepared”– those who live open to Christ and His
Spirit–will have great rewards in the here and now and future. He also says those who are not prepared will
be “beaten” – an image not to be taken literally but understood as “beaten
down,” discouraged, despaired, debilitated by doubts, fears, vengeance, greed—the
results of a faithless life.

In
the ensuing years, the fable of “The Grasshopper and the Ants” has evolved into
one with more Christian aesthetics in the just the same way we have come to interpret
what sounds like Jesus’ harsh sayings in newly inspired ways. In the more recent rendition, the Ants
have compassion on the Grasshopper, invite him into their colony for the winter
to entertain them with his fiddle. Everybody eats to the sound of music, and
afterward, dancing ensues, celebrating a kind of heavenly banquet! The implication here is that with compassion
comes a new consciousness that there’s a unique work for everyone to do –many gifts
but one Spirit.

This vision of
all working, living and playing together, adds much to how we read Jesus’
parable of the Faithful and Prudent Steward.
To get right down to it: Why put us
through the suffering of being without Christ, living in despair, hurt, anger,
begrudging what we have or envying what we don’t have–when Jesus offers
abundant hope, solace, energy and grace-filled resources as needed. The Gospel reminds us that although Jesus is
ever-present at our door, we are tempted not to open it, or we can’t or won’t because
we’re more focused on our fiddling than on God who gave us the ability to
fiddle in the first place! On the
surface Jesus’ parable threatens us with punishments for failing to live the Gospel. More importantly, Providence inspires us to
acknowledge our weakness and fallibilities not to cultivate guilt but to
strengthen our resolve–if we let it–to hear Jesus knocking at our door and
let him in!

HOW shall we keep
the LIGHT of faith burning in our hearts and homes to let Jesus in? We may do so by cultivating an ever enthusiastic
“Yes” to living with integrity, honesty,
fairness in our work and leisure. We can cultivate a deeper Christ Awareness in
what we choose to read, how we speak, engage in dialogue regarding family
matters, news, politics or local community matters. We do these things not to “please Jesus” who
loves us unconditionally but to grow in solidarity with Him, to allow ourselves
to experience His friendship more fully, conscious He is HERE and Comes to Us
Continually.

Furthermore, we may
live faith, hope and love daily by
saying “No” to lies, by refusing to ignore the deep realities of issues,
people, places and things; by saying “No” to blaming others and saying “Yes” to
exploring and sharing in solutions to daily dilemmas and wider woes of city, state
and world.

In Christ, and through Communion with Him, we allow ourselves to be Enlivened, energized by the Holy Spirit for all the work at hand, balanced by proper “sabbath” rest and leisure – all in a proper balance of time and place exemplified by the Change of Seasons, themes and ideas supported by fable and parable alike. Humility offers Heaven on Earth as we affirm and live-out Jesus’ words: “Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more.”

Woe to the
family that does not anticipate retirement, make provisions for health care and
reduce its credit card debt. Practicality
entreats us to model ourselves on the squirrels. In summer and fall, they gather nuts for
sustenance in winter and spring. We,
too, must prepare prudently investing in annuities and 410Ks, or, if those are
not available to us, we try to go without some luxuries today so we may expand
our savings accounts for tomorrow. Forthright
foresightedness is a top priority for
all–or, at least for those among us who don’t have to live hand-to-mouth on a
weekly basis. Either way, we’re probably
befuddled by Jesus’ parable. No
precautions for the future? Are there not retirement scenarios we can dream
about? Goals for creative hobbies, lengthier
leisure time, Church and community involvement?
Hmmmm.

We mustn’t see
today’s Scripture readings as a threat to these very human concerns, but we must engage in conversation with the
Bible to assess our priorities among our passions, properties and possessions.

Jesus isn’t
against us having things—in fact, he’s not against us at all. He is the Savior who is FOR US, WITH US and
IN US. He invites us to celebrate life
as we allow Him to diminish our worries and anxieties. He does that, in part, by endowing us with faith,
intelligence and talents to make our way in this world including our
relationship with things. Jesus invites us to honor the gift of work to procure
for ourselves, our children and dependents the necessities of food, clothing
and shelter. Beyond that, the Holy
Spirit engages us in what we buy in the way these things reflect our
personalities, our likes and dislikes. What
we own—and how we take care of what we own– is an expression of ourselves and
even our beliefs. For all that, Jesus invites
us not to take our money, our belongings or ourselves too seriously.
He bestows on humanity intelligence and
the ability to cultivate a sense of humor.
Here are a few jokes that might put us at ease: Who was the
world’s first stockbroker? Noah.
Noah? Yes, he floated his stock while
the world was in liquidation.

Once
an investor asked his advisor: Is all my money truly gone?
No, of course not. It’s just with somebody else!

Dear Friend, I’ve
come to realize Money can buy a House…But not a Home; Money can buy a
Bed…………..But not a Good Night’s Sleep; Money can buy a
Clock…………But not Time; Money can buy you a Book….But not Knowledge; Money
can buy you Medicine…….But not Health; Money can buy you Sex…………But
not Love. So you see money isn’t
everything. It often causes pain and suffering. I tell you all this because I
am your Friend, and as your Friend I want to take away your pain and suffering.
Send all your money to me and let me suffer
for you.

The
cynicism of Qoheleth in the Book of Ecclesiastes offers helpful insights as
well. The things we treasure, what we work hard to have and appreciate, may not
be treasured or appreciated by those who inherit what we have, what we saved
for. Some people prioritize a comfortable home, others money for travel. Some value collections of books or recordings,
paintings, momentos, Nativity sets and Statues of the Saints –others prefer
large screen smart tv’s and sound systems, others gardening and landscaping. IF
the next generation doesn’t love what we love, what do we leave them? Do we owe them anything at all?

Jesus says
the key is to know that for all that we value, know what matters most to
God. Scriptures make it clear that God
cares about relationships –ours with God and others. Clearly God delights in every human being,
all animals and all creation because God sustains all with a life force that
engages all. As Saint Paul once said to
the Greeks at the Areopagus: “In God we live and move and have our being.” This
is the concept that grounds all faith and therefore must be the foundation of
all our lives’ choices: Thanksgiving for life itself and responding to God’s
graciousness by consciously reminding ourselves that our lives are not our own;
that ownership is always and forever will be temporary; that what we can or
cannot afford has nothing to do with our innate dignity or the place or state
of being that Christ offers us here and now and what Christ reserves for us in
heaven. Practically speaking, what we
think we own are God’s gifts to us to be shared– to learn from and to engage
with others.

Our pray
for today is for Prudence. The more
commercials and pop up adds on our computer bombard our psyches, the more we
need the Spirit of Wisdom. We must not throw caution to the winds but exercise
cool judgment. Our culture readily
cultivates jealousies and envies, manipulating us to equal or exceed our
neighbors’ buying power. It tempts us to assess ourselves and others on the quality of our
clothes, cars, homes or apartments. None
of these things last, but our relationships will.

An act of
love resounds unto eternity. Today we recognize that what we buy and recycle has
a much greater impact on others and future generations than we may like to
acknowledge. The Spirit of God and Jesus’
love will guide us if we attend to their Holy Spirt. Remember, our Eucharists direct us to
cultivate community, to care for ourselves and others without material excess
so that not only our futures but future generations can benefit from what we
own, what we accomplish, what we recycle, how we care for the air and water and
the animals with whom we share them, and , equally important, how we may inspire them to allow Jesus to expand
their lives with faith, hope and love. And
the greatest of these is love.

Vanity of vanities, says Qoheleth,vanity of vanities! All things are vanity!

Here is one who has labored with wisdom and knowledge and skill,and yet to another who has not labored over it,he must leave property. This also is vanity and a great misfortune. For what profit comes to man from all the toil and anxiety of heartwith which he has labored under the sun? All his days sorrow and grief are his occupation;even at night his mind is not at rest. This also is vanity.

R. (1) If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.You turn man back to dust,saying, “Return, O children of men.”For a thousand years in your sight are as yesterday, now that it is past, or as a watch of the night.R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.You make an end of them in their sleep; the next morning they are like the changing grass,Which at dawn springs up anew,but by evening wilts and fades.R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain wisdom of heart.Return, O LORD! How long? Have pity on your servants!R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.Fill us at daybreak with your kindness, that we may shout for joy and gladness all our days.And may the gracious care of the LORD our God be ours; prosper the work of our hands for us! Prosper the work of our hands!R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

Brothers and sisters:If you were raised with Christ, seek what is above,where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.Think of what is above, not of what is on earth. For you have died,and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ your life appears,then you too will appear with him in glory.

Put to death, then, the parts of you that are earthly:immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire,and the greed that is idolatry. Stop lying to one another,since you have taken off the old self with its practicesand have put on the new self,which is being renewed, for knowledge,in the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew,circumcision and uncircumcision,barbarian, Scythian, slave, free;but Christ is all and in all.

Someone in the crowd said to Jesus,“Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.” He replied to him,“Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?” Then he said to the crowd,“Take care to guard against all greed,for though one may be rich,one’s life does not consist of possessions.”

Then he told them a parable. “There was a rich man whose land produced a bountiful harvest. He asked himself, ‘What shall I do,for I do not have space to store my harvest?’And he said, ‘This is what I shall do:I shall tear down my barns and build larger ones. There I shall store all my grain and other goodsand I shall say to myself, “Now as for you,you have so many good things stored up for many years,rest, eat, drink, be merry!”’But God said to him,‘You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you;and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?’Thus will it be for all who store up treasure for themselvesbut are not rich in what matters to God.”

We come again to Jesus’ parable of The Good Samaritan, acknowledging it applies to far more than whether we offer a handout to a beggar on the street. As far as that is concerned, we know we can’t always, but sometimes, we must. As Pope Francis reminds us, charity must be without judgment, without lectures or reprimands but a surrender to the Holy Spirit—unqualified as it may be quantified. But we mustn’t settle with only one application of this Gospel. Our times call for expansion of our faith as it applies to all aspects of our lives.

Some say
politics and religion must never interact, but the parable of the Good Samaritan
insists we attend to our current immigration crisis–the refugee camps and holding
cells for immigrants from Central America and elsewhere. Witness’ statements are alarmingly
conflicted. Some literally weep over the suffering—people in confinement
without access to toilets and shower facilities– and others report that all is
well, that everyone is treated humanely. We don’t know truly who to believe. But our faith
insists we attend to the side of those who suffer and not look the other way.

Some say charity
has no place in government. Charity belongs to the realm of churches synagogues,
temples and mosques. But wait! We believe in a government by the people for
the people, do we not? If our government
does not respond to people in crisis in ways we believe are good, then who is
our government representing?

Even if you
believe that every undocumented immigrant must return to his or her own country—a
stance that the United States Catholic Bishops insist is not fair or
compassionate because of the many hostile situations most of the immigrants are
fleeing—the very essence of human kindness insists that we treat fellow human
beings with dignity, provide them with at least the most basic comforts while
we assess their situations before sending them back to their countries of
origin.

Furthermore,
charity requires we analyze our government and our American Corporation
involvement in these countries to see where we help or hinder the local
populations. These are just some of the applications the Good Samaritan Parable
insists we consider. Let’s take a brief
look at human history and see what insights our pasts offer.

Kindness to strangers
has always been an essentially human value. Indeed, we find it in evidence in
ancient documents that predate the Bible. As the civilizations of Samaria, Mesopotamia
and Egypt were being cultivated, most of humanity lived as foragers and
wandering nomads with herds of sheep and goats. When they came upon the outskirts
of cites, it was customary for citizens to offer them food and rest before they
moved onward. Our Jewish ancestors
insisted this practice was divinely inspired and made it an outright
obligation. Consider these examples:

Abraham and the Three visitors. Without hesitation, Abram asks his wife Sarai to make a meal. Had they not, the promise of Covenant, children and future would not have cone to them.

Esau forgives and welcomes back his brother Jacob / now named Israel with Israel’s wives, children, other relatives and many servants and flocks even though Israel had been gone over 14 years.

Joseph, advisor to Pharaoh welcomes All 11 brothers, father and all the Israelites to Egypt when Canaan was plagued with drought and famine.

Moses guides the people to welcome aliens in their midst for the people were once aliens themselves.

In the Greek
and Roman empires, hospitality to strangers was a lawful and religious act. They believed any of the gods or goddesses
could be a beggar in disguise.
Christianity affirmed that attributing the invitation to kindness as consorting
with angels. We read this in Chapter 13
of the Letter to the Hebrews: “1 Let mutual love continue. 2 Do
not neglect hospitality, for through it some have unknowingly entertained
angels. 3 Be
mindful of prisoners as if sharing their imprisonment, and of the ill-treated
as of yourselves, for you also are in the body.”

Another
important aspect of the Good Samaritan Parable is the context of religious
fundamentalism, rigidity and scrupulosity in living out the faith. We cannot
ignore the fact that Jesus highlights the people unresponsive to the robbers’
victim are religious clerics. Here is an alarming example of legalism trumping a
deeper, more universal humanity. We all
know the priest and Levite are following “the letter of the law,” they cannot be contaminated by the victim’s blood
nor by someone who may a member of their clan or tribe if they are to serve at
worship at the temple or synagogue. Jesus’ parable questions such allegiance.

We must admit
that Catholicism has also had a
reputation, in our past and somewhat in our present, for rigidity in practice
and scrupulosity in spirit; in brief: Legalism.
The Good Samaritan Parable reminds us that people can avoid compassion, neglect
charity as much BECAUSE of, if not despite our religion.

In the
decades prior to Vatican II, there’s a
story of a woman who neglected her toddler – keeping him alone at home in
playpen– so she could get to church and not incur mortal sin. Today she would be
arrested. I also know of a band of brothers
who cheated a brother out of shares in their business justifying themselves
because he no longer was a practicing Catholic. Hypocrisy for sure.

We used to
not be able to attend weddings in Protestant churches or go to church or
synagogue with people of other faiths, but today, Holy Spirit has won out just
as Jesus broke through the rigidity of religious practices of his time. Vatican II institutionalized what Catholics sensed
and recognized long before, that God is all in all, and that we need to respect
faith in all its many forms within and among our families’ relatives in the
wider neighborhoods. Such rigidity in rules were always meant to be broken and
come of age.

Still, rigidity
and legalisms can still hold sway even in our times. There are those who continue
to come to confession, saying, “Forgive
me, father, for I have sinned. I missed
mass on Sunday, but I was terribly sick with flu.” Confessors assure them that God cares about
their health and wellbeing and they made the right decision not to attend–for
themselves and for the rest of us. What
makes people still so overly concerned with the Church’s rules and guidelines? Must they live in fear of mortal of a wrathful,
vengeful God? That is not the God of
Jesus Christ.

A more common question I get concerns whether Catholics should attend a wedding if their children or relatives are marrying outside the church – out in a field or by a swimming pool. In more serious and much more complicated situations they ask the same about LGBTQ relatives and friends. Here we must remember the many, many stories of Jesus in the homes of tax collectors and people of ill repute. He never insists that they follow him , but rather gets to know them, affirm their God-given dignity, their loving and life-affirming qualities, always highlighting the good He saw in them at the same time He invites them to a relationship. A Good Samaritan would always celebrate our common humanity by putting love over judgment. Should you go to these weddings, these homes? Our answer is irrefutable YES! Remember: God says, “judgment is mine,” and Jesus said many times in many ways, “ be merciful just as your father is also merciful.”

Now that we
have reflected on the Word, we are all invited to the Eucharistic table. I
assure you, on behalf of Jesus and His Church, I am not going to ask you for
your green cards, your passports, your politics or anything else other than
your “Amen,” i.e. your assent that Christ is with us, in us, in me and you and
all, at work in us, conforming us with patience and unconditional love to break
through the barriers of yes, even law
and order, to acknowledge our common
humanity–a humanity which He assumed fully and completely for our sake—to make
Good Samaritans of us all.

Jesus said
Satan was being conquered by the Gospel. How did that happen then? How does it happen now? Are we still applying the Gospel to advance
the good and limit if not eradicate the bad by the grace of God?

There are
many ways to live and many different foundations of faith to stand on. Christianity and Judaism are rooted in
worship (which teaches us humility, reverence and awe in God’s presence). Faith
assures us that God willingly shares a divine spark and spirit with every
member of the human race. Faith invites
us to see each other differently than the world views us—i.e., as consumers,
numbers, quota or constituencies.

With many
abandoning organized religions these days, the most popular “alternate religion”
is humanism, which, although it denies God and the need for worship, continues
to reverence the human being. As it abandons the Jewish and Christian belief in
the Divine Spark, the soul in every person, humanism maintains the importance
of people as individuals. It champions
“free will” not as a God-given right but a right, nonetheless. It values “liberty” while softening its
tendency to selfishness by borrowing the biblical ideal of unity among peoples for
the common good.

Yes, Humanism
promotes tolerance and good will, respect for differences but without the
profound Eucharistic dimensions of true acceptance. Humanism has difficulty with Jesus’
insistence on forgiveness and reconciliation rooted in the Jewish
Covenant. Humanism promotes a vision of
the future in which everyone gets along but that lacks the profundity of the
Biblical promise of a new heaven and a new earth guided by cooperation with a
loving God.

Why are
these distinctions important? Because
without God there is no true humanity.
Without God there is no true humility; no deference to a wisdom and love greater than our own. Humility rooted in submission to God acknowledges
human weakness, limitations, tendency to selfishness –what we call “sin”—without
which we see ourselves as little gods, tribal leaders, kings and queens or their modern counterparts, presidents and
prime ministers of our own design. The Bible does say, at times, “You have made us little less than a God,” but
the emphasis is on “less than.”

In contrast, humanism trusts not in the Trinity
of Father, Son and Spirit but in a trinity of its own inventions—commerce,
science and technology. It is time we
realize that, more and more, humanism
surrenders human dignity to these newly created gods making “Progress” the greatest
good. If not kept in check, progress
will advance at the expense of all religions and even humanist values.

Saint Paul
insisted on humility as a faith foundation, an essential ingredient in true
goodness when he wrote: “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
The Covenant with Israel insisted “”Let all on earth worship and sing
praise to you, sing praise to your name!”

And Jesus saw evil being conquered
through the efforts of 72 disciples (both Jews and Gentiles at this juncture) participating
in His Gift of the Holy Spirit when he said, “I have observed Satan fall
like lightning from the sky. … Nevertheless, do not rejoice because the
spirits are subject to you, but rejoice
because your names are written in heaven.”
i.e. God is at work through you.
That is the faith that will bring you to eternal life. Life is not about us, but God in all. We view ourselves as “masters of the
universe” at great peril.

Jesus’ commandments to the 72
disciples emphasized God, not humanism, not commerce, nor science. Jesus sent the 72 abroad to experience God through
deference to the kindness of strangers, requiring disciples to see every
individual and family as members of God’s family. Jesus’s instructed them to “Carry no money
bag, no sack, no sandals” Why? He did not want them to find their confidence
in material things but in the Spirit alive in them. Jesus said, “Stay in the same house and eat
and drink what is offered to you, for the laborer deserves his payment.” Notice
the “payment” is not gold or riches or social advancement but a sustaining meal;
meals in which people truly listen to one another, attend to each one’s
feelings and share questions that evoke conversation of values, of faith, of
rights and wrongs. And, since no one is
always “right,” but all are sometimes wrong, with forgiveness and hope. Today’s counterpart to the 72’s experience would
be meals without cell phones and private texts, meals without tv, computers or
other distractions, meals where monetary concerns are put aside.

Today’s Scriptures offer lessons that teach us how to engage in the modern age. We must be consistent in posing critical questions to our neighbors, employers, politicians, doctors and heads of corporations and technological conglomerates:

“Who will benefit from these business decisions, from these
economic standards, these political views and who will be left out? Will these
new technologies advance the health and wellbeing of all or a select few? Who may be harmed by these decisions and
advances? Do we want to repeat the sins
of the past or learn from them instead?

Commerce,
science and technology offer amazing possibilities but without God, without you
and me and other people of faith, they have no motivation to value a common
humanity over a privileged humanity; no
value system to nurture mother earth for the common good. Instead they will nurture advancement for its
own sake, over and above everything and everyone.

Building
on the Jewish prophets, Jesus has empowered us to keep commerce, science and
technology in check. We must align ourselves with the 72 disciples as we
approach the Eucharistic table today. We
must ask the Lord to strengthen our faith -filled convictions, to expand our
reverence for God, for all God’s people and God’s good earth. If we
do not leave this church today with that kind of reverence, what will become of
our world? To which Trinity will we have allegiance? Whose people will we truly be?

As priests are obliged to do, I spent about a
day’s work reflecting on the Scriptures for today and reading Commentaries by
noted scholars and Spiritual Writers. I
am happy to share these insights with you.

The first comes from a book entitled LUKE FOR
EVERYONE by Anglican Bishop and Scholar N. T. Wright (pp107-108)

A popular interpretation of the Miracle of the
Multiplication of Loaves and Fishes is that it represents nothing more than an “Inspirational
Moment” when , having heard Jesus preach, all the people –the 5,000 men and
additional women and children—were inspired to share what food they had so that
all were satisfied. “No!” writes Bishop
Wright. For that version denies us the
experience of the Glorious Impossible, the Cosmic God of Surprise.

In defense of his position, he reminds us that
the Multiplication of Loaves and Fishes occurs right after The Twelve Return
from their first commission to preach the Gospel in the surrounding villages. Jesus had sent them out with the instruction not
to take a money bag. Usually,
traveling teachers would keep a bag for the alms they received. Jesus wanted his disciples to be totally
dependent on the kindness of strangers to give them food and shelter—only the
barest necessities with nothing to retain, i.e. living hand to mouth, trusting
in the Holy Spirit at work in the world, trusting in Providence. The implication is that they had to relate
honestly and openly with other people; they had to project their relationship
with Jesus on to their relationship with others.

Today’s Gospel, the Bishop asserts, invites us
to the same radical trust in God as it did the Twelve and all the others with
them. For indeed, IF it was evident that the people in
the crowd had food with them and could
share their provisions with other (the “practical” way of interpreting “the
miracle”), the Twelve would not have been put-out by Jesus’s order “to give
them food yourselves.” No, there is no
mention of food among the masses and the Twelve respond with a touch of irony
and sarcasm: “Five loaves and two fish are all
we have, unless we ourselves go and buy food for all these people.” So, like their commission to preach, Jesus,
once again, invited them and US to “go into the unknown, into a world where
things aren’t normally like that, and to trust God completely.”

Bishop Wright comments: “We aren’t called to
believe that Jesus can, as it were, do tricks to order. He wasn’t a magician. What he did on this rare occasion was to
allow God’s creative power to flow through him in a special way, as with his
healings, but more so.”

I will add that this is the same Eucharistic reality are we invited to: allow God’s creative power to flow through us as Jesus imbues our body with the essence of His Body and Blood in every aspect of the Mass –people gathered, in prayer, engaging the Scriptures, contemplation, hand-shaking, Eucharistic action and real presence, and commissioning forth.

Here is an example of some of the powerful mystery the Eucharist invites us to embrace from a short story entitled “Revelation” by Catholic author Flannery O’Connor. (I found this in a book entitled A Retreat with Luke (‘s Gospel) by Barbara E. Reid, O.P. (St. Anthony Press) p. 73-74

Flannery
O’Connor tells of Mrs. Ruby Turpin, a woman who prides herself on being a good
woman who helps other people and is saved by Jesus. Mrs. Turpin had a clear hierarchy of the
classes of people. On the bottom of the
heap were (what she called—NOT ME) “colored people.” Then, just next to them,
“white trash.” She and her husband, Claude, homeowners and landowners, were far
above.

A disturbing incident in a doctor’s waiting
room, in which Mrs. Turpin is assaulted by a “lunatic” young woman, who calls
her “a wart hog from hell,” is followed by this vision: She saw herself in the mud clinging to the
edge or her very own hog pen:

“Until the sun slipped finally behind the tree
line, Mrs. Turpin remained there . . . she lifted her head. There was only a purple streak in the sky,
cutting through a field of crimson and leading, like an extension of the
highway, into the descending dusk . . .

A visionary light settled in her eyes. She saw the streak as a vast swinging bridge
extending upward from the earth through a field of living fire. Upon it a vast horde of souls were rumbling
toward heaven.

There were whole companions of white-trash,
clean for the first time in their lives, and bands of black (people) in white
robes, and battalions of freaks and lunatics shouting and clapping and leaping
like frogs. And bringing up the end of
the procession was a tribe of people whom she recognized at once as those who,
like herself and Claud, had always had a little of everything and the God-given
wit to use it right.

She leaned forward to observe them closer.
They were marching behind the others with great dignity, accountable as they
had always been for good order and common sense and respectable behavior. They alone were on key. Yet she could see by their shocked and
altered faces that even their virtues were being burned away. She lowered her hands and gripped the rail of
the hog pen, her eyes small but fixed unblinkingly on what lay ahead. In a moment the vision faded but she remained
where she was, immobile.

At length . . . (she got up and left the
doctor’s office) . . . and made her slow
way on the darkening path to the house.
In the woods around her the invisible cricket choruses had struck up,
but what she heard were the voice of the souls climbing upward into the starry
field and shouting hallelujah.”

The Eucharist, this miraculous Body of Christ, CORPUS CHRISTI, is transformed Bread and Wine and transforming You and Me. In it, with it and through it, Jesus humbles us, reduces us to common humanity and, I might add, to our connection to the hogs and every other animal, the trees, the waters, the winds, the mountains and our mutual dependence on a miracle-working God.